“She wouldn’t have been harmed, not like that,” Collette chided. “He probably used a glamour on her like he did on her friends. It’s still coercion, whether she enjoyed it or not.”
“Ma!”
Celestial peered into her face. “Didyou enjoy it?”
“That’s enough, girls.” Nana Darling’s voice was firm, and Celestial backed off reluctantly. Gali knew her family could see her blushing, and it embarrassed her even more.
“I wasn’t under a glamour,” she said.
“Well, that’s exactly what someone who was glamoured to say that would say,” Zélie replied, unable to stay silent. “It’s not exactly reassuring, Gali.”
Gali nearly hissed with rage. “So nothing I say matters anymore, does it? Y’all decided I’m not capable of speaking for myself and that’s it? Case closed, Kincaids ride for vengeance?” They were so fucking stubborn. “Y’all just gonna get yourselves killed,” she snarled.
Nana Darling gave her an evaluative look. “Be that as it may,” she said, “I’d suggest you look to your friends first.”
The blood reversed out of Gali’s face with a shocked swiftness. “You brought themhere?”
Collette patted her arm. “Where else would they be safer than with us, sweetheart? We even got to stop some demons that were headed toward the city on the way.”
“Yeah,” Celestial chimed in. “Thank goodness we wore the charmed whites, or we’d look a fucking mess right now.” She shuddered. “You know howstickydemon gore gets when it dries.”
Gali swung her head around wildly, but she couldn’t see her friends. There was no way. There was no fucking way her family had brought Bonbon and Oriak? to what they intended to be a battleground with the Devil and his princes. How the hell was Gali supposed to explain that away? “I don’t want them to see any of this,” she said, panic skating at the edges of her words. “We have to send them back, please.”
Nana Darling sighed. “You so afraid, Galilee. You think your friends won’t love you if you show them the truth of who you are?”
Gali stared at her grandmother. She wanted to tell her the truth so badly, that she didn’t even think her ownfamilywould love her if theysaw the truth of who she was—the way her strangeness eclipsed theirs, the light that burst out of her hands and how it burned, the shrieking power—all these things that had driven her away from the Kincaid house because, somewhere deep in her soul, she knew her strangeness would separate her from them. Gali didn’twantto be separate, but people kept insisting on looking, and all they were going to find in these truths was a canyon gaping where none used to be.
“Give your friends a chance,” Celestial said, with a little shrug. “We didn’t bother to hide our shit from them, and they seemed fine with it.”
Gali groaned out loud. “What do youmeanyou didn’t bother to hide your shit?” A chill raced down her back as her cousins exchanged guilty looks. “You didn’t let themseeyou fight the demons, did you?”
Leah looked abashed. “Didn’t occur to us not to,” she admitted.
Collette waved to Peony, who was at the back of the Kincaid cluster. “Just ask them yourself, baby.”
Gali glared at her cousins, who were avoiding meeting her eyes as Peony jogged off to a patch of willow trees and came back with Oriak? and Bonbon in tow. Of course her family had hidden them away at first, until their Kincaid business was concluded. When it came to their own convenience, they certainly knew how to keep the worlds apart. Still, Gali’s chest twisted when she saw her friends, and even more so at the naked relief in their eyes when they caught sight of her in turn.
Bonbon ran toward Gali and pulled her into a hug. “I’m so fucking glad you’re alive,” she said in a low, harsh whisper.
“I’m fine,” Gali said, for what felt like the hundredth time. “I’m really okay. You don’t have to worry.”
Oriak? leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I think you’ll find we’ll worry if we want to, Gali.” She folded her arms and gave her a hard stare. “Your family filled us in on the way over. So Helel is really the Devil? Like theactualDevil?”
Behind her, the Kincaids retreated to give them some privacy. Bonbon shivered and rubbed her arms. “He did say so in your loft. It’s fuzzy, but I remember.”
Gali swallowed hard. “My family explained what happened to you?” Bonbon and Oriak? nodded, their faces carefully neutral, and Gali tried not to cry. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “After the gunshot, shit felt like it was spiraling out of control, and I just wanted it to stop. I had no idea I could actually... stop it like that, and I didn’t have time to figure out how to undo it before Lucifer took me and left.”
The scent of smoke and musk drifted up from the tunic as Gali ran her hands over it anxiously.
“I shouldn’t have let him fuck with your memories. I was just... I was so terrified that all this shit would fuck you up even worse. I didn’t wanna be the one who dragged y’all into it. I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did.” Oriak? looked unhappy. “It wasn’t great to hear what happened from your family. I mean, they’re sweet, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know them from shit.”
Gali nodded. “I should’ve made him go back. I should’ve taken care of y’all.” She dashed tears off her face as they began to fall. “It just felt like a different reality altogether, and I thought you’d be safe like that until I figured shit out.”
Bonbon gave a small laugh. “Damn, it really is like your grandma said. You put us on hold like toys on a shelf.”
Oriak? nudged her. “Cut Gali some slack, though. Shewasbeing targeted by the Devil himself.”
